This morning the world lost a spiritual icon and a true man of God. I received a text just minutes before it hit the news that Billy Graham had died. It was expected. He had reached the venerable age of ninety and nine years and I am sure in his heart of hearts he was ready to go see the Kingdom of Christ.

I was in a Bible Study tonight at Debbie’s Baptist church when the minister asked me if I would say a few words to the group about Billy Graham as he knew we had been associated through the years. I recalled that we had appeared on a number of tv shows together and we had sung on multiple crusades of his. He was an honorable and good man and loved by everyone who met him and worked with him. I then remembered a story that I thought showed his true brotherly spirit.

We, the Statlers, had been on a long three-week tour and on the last night, we joined the Billy Graham Crusade in Dallas for one night and then headed home the next day. We were anxious to get home and after checking all the schedules found we could fly out of Dallas that night without having to wait till the next day for a flight. Only problem was, to make that plane, we’d have to leave the coliseum right after our song and before his sermon. We debated all afternoon whether we should approach him with that possibility. Would it be rude? Would he be offended? After much soul-searching, at rehearsal we called him aside and told him our dilemma and before we even finished our story, he said, “Boys, when you get through with your song, just cut out of here. Go home and I don’t blame you.” He set our hearts at ease and showed his true class and brotherhood.

I read his column everyday in the newspaper or online. He handles every question with grace and understanding and gives the best Christian advice humanly possible. I have been teaching a Sunday school class for over thirty years at my home church and many, many times I have ripped his column from the newspaper and taken it to church with me and used it for the Sunday school lesson.

Billy Graham has been honored so many times and in so many ways and with so many gold plaques, but today he received the ultimate reward. Tonight, as we speak nobly of him and of his faith and his loving nature, he is so very far beyond all our words and accolades.

Another giant in the music industry left us this past weekend. And a genuine good man he was. Mel Tillis had that perennial smile and fun personality wherever and whenever you saw him. We first crossed paths working a country music package show in Charlotte, in the early 60s, before we had even gotten to Nashville. By 1967 we had recorded our first Mel Tillis-written song on our second album, “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town.” As a songwriter, he was unequaled. Everybody in the business recorded one or more of his fabulous songs in their career.

The five of us were sitting backstage one night somewhere and he was telling us about a gift he had recently gotten. A group of fans had a wood carving made of his likeness; small but very detailed. He took great pains in telling us how they had captured his fancy suit and boots and had perfectly chiseled the way he held the guitar. Then he said, “But when I got up to the head and looked it right in the face, it looked exactly like Phil.” We all broke up and then he looked at Phil and said, “Do you want it?” We had never noticed until then just how much he and Phil looked alike. It was a running joke for years every time we got together.

In the middle of our run of 4th of July charity shows in Staunton, (we did it for 25 years) Mel came to our hometown in 1984 and did the show with us. The consummate entertainer, he could do comedy and with such ease and then slide right into a heartbreaker like “Burning Memories” (yes, he wrote that one, too.) We never felt we had properly paid back his kindness until years later. Mel went to Branson and bought his own theater and worked there for years, most of the time seven nights a week. That’s hard and tiring work. He called us one time when he heard we were going to be in the Midwest and said, “Guys, will ya’ll come out here and do a couple of nights in my theater so I can have a break and take a couple of days off?” We did, and gladly for a friend.

We hosted a couple of award shows together through the years and when we did our second 2-hour tv special in the 80s, Mel came and did that with us, also. Harold and I wrote a great little western skit for him and Reba. The Statlers were the bad guys, Reba was the heroine, and Mel was the shaky sheriff and he was hilarious. He also did a song and a standup comedy routine where I joined him in the end. You can watch it below.

But before you do, let me just say Mel was a man who could do it all and always had fun doing it. He loved his family, his work, his friends, and he loved the country music he was so good at creating. We will cherish it all from “Detroit City” to “Mental Revenge.” (Yeah, he wrote both of those, too.) We’ll miss you, my friend. But just for a while.